1Corinthians
13:4-7
"Charity
(love) suffereth long, and is kind; charity (love)
envieth not; charity (love) vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, (love) Doth not behave itself
unseemly, (love) seeketh not her own, (love) is
not easily provoked, (love) thinketh no evil; (love)
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but (love) rejoiceth
in the truth; (love) Beareth all things, (love)
believeth all things, (love) hopeth all things,
(love) endureth all things."
The
capstone of it all.
1Corinthians
13:13
"And
now abideth faith, hope, charity, (love) these three;
but the greatest of these is charity." (love)
I
have tried to emphasize to people over the years as my wife and I
have shared, not just from this chapter, but from all over the New
Testament. That as we go through Paul’s letters, we find no
reference any more after the Corinthians’ letters, to tongues, and
prophecies, but rather throughout his whole segment of our New Testament,
these three words just keep popping up. FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE
they never stop. These three things are just as valid today as they
were at the very beginning of his ministry, of bring man kind into God's kingdom and the greatest of our efforts is love. Even in James if we replace the word works with love we can begin to see the pattern. Coming back to Ephesians chapter 6, and so in that spirit of
true agape, God-given love, seeking that other person’s highest
good, in this case the children loving their parents, Paul goes right
back again to the Old Testament to the Ten Commandments. As he ties
all the scriptures together in the revealing of Christ's revelation
for the world. Of Light and then the greater Truth, that Light destroys death and
darkness caused by sin and mans Religion.
Ephesians
6:2
"Honor
thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment
with promise;)"
We
do not know how many of you remember the Ten Commandments. We have read a
little poll, that stated even among pastors, a great
percentage of them could not list more than five or six of the Ten
Commandments. And among the general population, they could only list
two or three. I can believe that. Is it any wonder we are in
trouble as a nation tonight? But I hope we are not that far gone,
that we cannot even remember the Ten Commandments. How about the
Beatitudes which are the foundation stones of the New Covenant
because the LORD Himself spoke them. Look at Romans chapter 13,
and then we will run back to Exodus.
Romans
13:8-9, 10
"Owe
(defraud) no man any thing, but to love one another: for he
that loves another* has fulfilled the law. (the
Ten Commandments and Christ own ordinance) For this, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou
shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet; and if there be
any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying,
namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.** Love works no ill
to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
*based
on seeking the other persons highest good. **Paul is quoting almost
verbatim from the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself.
The
point I want to get across is found in Romans chapter 6.
Romans
6:14
"For
sin* shall not have dominion over you: (why)
for ye are not under the law, but under grace."
*the
old Adam nature, the old sin nature (being a Satan-child) we’re
born with.
Here
is the dilemma. If we are under Grace, and not under Law, why does
Paul repeat the commandments? And he repeats 9 out of the 10, and the
one that he does not mention is the Sabbath which was on Saturday
under the Law. But he does repeat all the others. Why, if we are
under Grace? Because even under Grace the constitution of the
Almighty God Himself is still valid. Just because we are under
Grace does not give us license to steal, or license to commit
adultery. They are still God’s guidelines for Holy, Righteous,
living. And we for one are not against posting the Ten Commandments
in public places, because they are non-intrusive, and they do not
scorn any other religion. The Ten Commandments are a worldwide set of
rules for social activity and behavior and should not embarrass anyone's
particular faith or lack of it. That is the way we look at it, but there are many
that do not agree with us. That is okay because they will find one
day themselves standing before the Judge of all humanity and they
will NOT like that position at all. Notice I said humanity, that one
term is very restrictive in itself. Just as being Spiritual is very
restrictive by itself and there differences stand out.
The
major point I want to make is that the relationship between the
husband and wife, between the parents and the children is LOVE.
Love is the key to all of this, because when love is active there is
by its very nature respect of all humanity. To day in this world of
darkness and evil those who have no respect (love of others) stand
apart from all the rest. Because they are at war within themselves
and then those people and nations around them. They have no understanding of the sanctity of God and Christ's divine essence, which each person holds within his/her soul, hidden by sins shell, which only His Light can break open. They therefore are driven by the nature of Satan as a blood thirsty savage to shed mans blood, any ones blood even
their own.
We
have got to go back to Exodus chapter 20 and just look at the Ten
Commandants and refresh them in our minds. It will remind us once
again that which so many people have forgotten totally. God gave
these Ten Commandments to Moses, who in turn took them down Mt. Sinai
and gave them to the (lost, in sin) children of Israel.
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